Italian Wine Brands SpA (ITWB) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / MBA Resources
Beverages (Alcoholic)
Strategy / MBA Resources
Introduction to SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix for Italian Wine Brands SpA (Italy)
Based on various researches at Oak Spring University , Italian Wine Brands SpA is operating in a macro-environment that has been destablized by – increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Italian Wine Brands SpA
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University, we believe that Italian Wine Brands SpA can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Italian Wine Brands SpA, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Italian Wine Brands SpA operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Italian Wine Brands SpA can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning of Italian Wine Brands SpA
2. Improving business portfolio management of Italian Wine Brands SpA
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Italy
4. Making a Beverages (Alcoholic) sector specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Italian Wine Brands SpA
Strengths of Italian Wine Brands SpA | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Italian Wine Brands SpA are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy of Italian Wine Brands SpA comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Organizational Resilience of Italian Wine Brands SpA
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing Italian Wine Brands SpA does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Italian Wine Brands SpA has one of the best training and development program in Consumer/Non-Cyclical industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Analytics focus
– Italian Wine Brands SpA is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry. The technology infrastructure of Italy is also helping it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
High brand equity
– Italian Wine Brands SpA has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Italian Wine Brands SpA to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Italian Wine Brands SpA has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in – Italian Wine Brands SpA staying ahead in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Italian Wine Brands SpA are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Italian Wine Brands SpA has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive Beverages (Alcoholic) industry. Secondly the value chain collaborators of Italian Wine Brands SpA have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Italian Wine Brands SpA is one of the leading players in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry in Italy. It is in a position to attract the best talent available in Italy. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Beverages (Alcoholic)
– Italian Wine Brands SpA is one of the leading players in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry in Italy. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry in Italy but also across the existing markets. The ability to lead change has enabled Italian Wine Brands SpA in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Beverages (Alcoholic) industry
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Italian Wine Brands SpA digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Italian Wine Brands SpA has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Learning organization
- Italian Wine Brands SpA is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Italian Wine Brands SpA is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders at Italian Wine Brands SpA emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses of Italian Wine Brands SpA | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Italian Wine Brands SpA are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Italian Wine Brands SpA is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication can help Italian Wine Brands SpA to provide better information regarding Beverages (Alcoholic) products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners in Beverages (Alcoholic) industry
– because of the regulatory requirements in Italy, Italian Wine Brands SpA is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Italian Wine Brands SpA is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry, but Italian Wine Brands SpA needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Italian Wine Brands SpA to focus more on services in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Italian Wine Brands SpA has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry, Italian Wine Brands SpA needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative at Italian Wine Brands SpA, in the dynamic environment of Beverages (Alcoholic) industry it has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Italian Wine Brands SpA has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, Italian Wine Brands SpA has high operating costs in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Italian Wine Brands SpA lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring in Beverages (Alcoholic) industry
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Italian Wine Brands SpA has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Italian Wine Brands SpA is one of the leading players in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry, it takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry in last five years.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Italian Wine Brands SpA supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes, Italian Wine Brands SpA is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Italian Wine Brands SpA vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Italian Wine Brands SpA has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry over the last five years. Italian Wine Brands SpA even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Italian Wine Brands SpA Opportunities | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities of Italian Wine Brands SpA are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Italian Wine Brands SpA is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Italian Wine Brands SpA can utilize new technology in the field of Beverages (Alcoholic) industry to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Italian Wine Brands SpA can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Italian Wine Brands SpA to increase its market reach. Italian Wine Brands SpA will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– consumer behavior has changed in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Italian Wine Brands SpA can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Italian Wine Brands SpA can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Italian Wine Brands SpA can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Developing new processes and practices
– Italian Wine Brands SpA can develop new processes and procedures in Beverages (Alcoholic) industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Beverages (Alcoholic) industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Italian Wine Brands SpA can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Italian Wine Brands SpA to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Italian Wine Brands SpA to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Italian Wine Brands SpA has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Italian Wine Brands SpA to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Italian Wine Brands SpA can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help Italian Wine Brands SpA to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Italian Wine Brands SpA has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in Beverages (Alcoholic) industry. This can help Italian Wine Brands SpA to build a more holistic ecosystem for Italian Wine Brands SpA products in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry by providing – data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions in Beverages (Alcoholic) industry
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Italian Wine Brands SpA in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry. Now Italian Wine Brands SpA can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Italian Wine Brands SpA External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats of Italian Wine Brands SpA are -
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Italian Wine Brands SpA needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Italian Wine Brands SpA can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate Italian Wine Brands SpA prominent markets.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Italian Wine Brands SpA high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, Italian Wine Brands SpA may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Beverages (Alcoholic) sector.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Italian Wine Brands SpA in the Beverages (Alcoholic) sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Italian Wine Brands SpA will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Italian Wine Brands SpA needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Italian Wine Brands SpA
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Italian Wine Brands SpA.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Italian Wine Brands SpA has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Italian Wine Brands SpA needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Beverages (Alcoholic) sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Environmental challenges
– Italian Wine Brands SpA needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Italian Wine Brands SpA can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Italian Wine Brands SpA.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Italian Wine Brands SpA business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Italian Wine Brands SpA Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers at Italian Wine Brands SpA needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of Italian Wine Brands SpA is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of Italian Wine Brands SpA is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Italian Wine Brands SpA to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Italian Wine Brands SpA needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.